In November, we wrote an article about Kansas high school swimmer Jack Punswick. His swimming story up to that point had been rather extraordinary. He dedicated himself to swimming his sophomore year of high school after being cut from the baseball team, and his junior year, he won the Kansas state title in the 100 breaststroke.
His story has only become more exceptional in the last six months. In September, he was diagnosed with stage II Hodgkin lymphoma. Cancer.
He ultimately decided to keep swimming through his treatment, choosing to take a gap year before entering college and withdrawing from all of the fall meets while he underwent chemotherapy from the end up September to the day after Christmas. He decided to continue swimming through all of this, though he needed to a few practices during the weeks he had chemo.
Due to other complications from the chemo, lower energy levels and the port on his chest, he was not able to train backstroke or butterfly, giving him time to focus on his breaststroke and freestyle workouts, as well as his technique, a time period he jokingly called a “five-month taper.”
Punswick, who swims for Cool Swim Team and Blue Valley West High School, started swimming his high school season before he was even done with his chemotherapy treatments, qualifying for state in his first 100 breaststroke of the season.
He continued swimming throughout the season ended up going into the state meet as the top qualifier in the event at 1:00.24. At state, he ended up finishing 2nd in 59.43, just over a second off the 58.38 he went to win at last year’s meet. He also swam the 50 breast on the boy’s medley relay, splitting 26.09 to help them qualify 1st for the final before they were ultimately disqualified in finals.
He has swam two meets since then, including the Speedo Sectionals in Columbia, where he competed in the 50, 100, and 200 breaststroke events, qualifying for finals in the 50 breaststroke.
Punswick is officially in remission from his cancer. He posted on Instagram yesterday saying
“I beat cancer. I want to thank God, my family, my girlfriend, my friends, my care team, my coaches, my teammates, and to all the people ad organizations that have helped my family and me throughout this journey. Thank you all for being a part of Team Jack”
Everything in this article screams incredible resilience and a champion mindset! All the best Jack for a happy, healthy and fulfilling future.
This guy is so cool
Go Jack! Thanks for following up on this story. There are many amazing parts of this sport, and Jack is one of them.